


The Good Ol' OPE

by Mrs_SimonTam_PHD



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Food, Fun, Gen, IDK what season pick a season, Midwestern things, OPE - Freeform, Puppy Chow, canonverse, dialects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-10-31 21:38:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17857403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mrs_SimonTam_PHD/pseuds/Mrs_SimonTam_PHD
Summary: Team Free Will is in Iowa. They hear a word and for once, they don't know what it is. Luckily, Gabriel does.





	The Good Ol' OPE

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FantasiaGolwyn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FantasiaGolwyn/gifts).



> THIS IS FOR THE AMAZINGLY TALENTED @SIRLSPLAYLAND. She requested that I write about Team Free Will encountering the all mighty OPE, and as a good Midwesterner (yes I live in Pennsylvania but that's adult life), I had to. 
> 
> Also you should check out Sirls art. It's amazing. Find her as @sirlsplayland on Twitter, tumblr, and Instagram ;)

It’s not very often that Sam and Dean didn’t come across a word or phrase that they couldn’t decipher for themselves or for Castiel, who was still getting used to the idioms and slang of various regions of human speech. Sam still snickered to himself about when they were in Boston chasing after a vampire nest and Castiel was confused about someone saying “I’m gonna go put some earl in the car” and Sam had to explain that no, the person was  _ not  _ putting a man named Earl, or a man with the title of Earl, in a car, but rather, that was Boston speak for “oil”. Castiel was very concerned, still, until he saw that the man  _ was  _ putting motor oil in his car, and not a human being. He was even more confused when they were interrogating someone and the witness had mentioned ‘the bubbler’. Having some time in a Boston area high school, they were able to understand- and therefore, explain to Castiel- that the witness meant the water fountain.

They’ve been all over. They thought they’ve heard everything and could adapt to regional differences. 

That wasn’t exactly true, as it turned out. 

They were at a store in Iowa- Hy-Vee, it was called. They were trying to select deli sandwiches and salads for the road, on their way to a hunt Papillon, Nebraska, with a suspected shtriga on the loose. 

Dean was flirting with the woman behind the deli counter, Sam was looking through the various salads, and Castiel was kind of meandering aimlessly down the soda aisle when two women accidentally ran into him. 

“Ope,” they said in almost perfect unison. They moved around a confused Castiel. Sam watched them go, his brow furrowing as he heard one of them say, “Come on, I want puppy chow and I’ll murder someone if I don’t get it.”

Castiel turned wild eyes at Sam. “What does ‘ope’ mean?” he asked. “And why are those women wanting to consume food that is meant for canines?”

“Aahhh,” Sam didn’t have an answer for either of those things. He’s never heard of either ‘ope’ or ‘puppy chow’. 

“What’s going on?” Dean asked, cradling his sub like it was a newborn child. 

“Two women bumped into me,” Castiel explained. “And they said ‘ope’, which I’m fairly certain isn’t a word. And then one said she would like ‘puppy chow’ and I’m confused as to why someone would want to consume food meant for puppies.” 

Dean went to answer, only to find that he didn’t know the answer to either of those questions. 

“Women,” Gabriel muttered, appearing by them in an instant. “They grabbed the last thing of fresh puppy chow.” He pouted. “And I know they’ll just bring out the stale stuff to sell.”

“Why do you wish to consume dog food, Gabriel?” Castiel asked quizzically.

“It’s not-” Gabriel looked at the Winchesters and Castiel, who were staring at him in utter confusion, before sighing. “I forget. The Midwest is weird. Alright. Besides puppy chow, what else are you boys confused on?” 

“Ope,” Castiel said. “This isn’t a word.” 

“Sure it is, Cassie! Ope is basically the Midwestern way of saying ‘excuse me’, or ‘my bad, I’m sorry’. It’s a regional thing.” Gabriel produced a sucker from his coat pocket and slipped it into his mouth. “Kind of like how they say ‘pop’ instead of ‘soda’. Or like how New Yorkers say  _ cwoaffee _ instead of  _ coffee  _ like a normal person.” 

“I think I’ve heard someone say it when they ran into a grocery cart,” Dean said.

“Yeah, they say it to everything. It can also mean like ‘well, what are you going to do about it?’” Gabriel continued. “Like if you tell someone from the Midwest that they’re about to get slammed with ten inches of snow tomorrow, they’ll just say, ‘ope, better hurry on down to the store to get some rock salt’.”

Sam chuckled. “So it’s a catch-all phrase that can mean ‘well’ or ‘my bad’,” he said. 

“Exactly, Sasquatch,” Gabriel said. “So, check out, and then we can find you boys some puppy chow. It’s not dog food, by the way. You feed the poor dog puppy chow and you’re going to have a bad time.”

“If it’s not for puppies, then why call it puppy chow?” Castiel asked, nearly running into an end cap display of Poptarts. “Ope fuck.”  

Dean and Gabriel snickered. “Close, Cassandra,” Gabriel said while Castiel scowled at the display. “Typically, it’s just ‘ope’ though. No swearing at the end. And it does kind of look like dog food.”

Sam chuckled and patted Castiel’s shoulder. “You okay?” 

“I’m fine,” the seraph said. 

Now that Castiel, Dean, and Sam were aware of the ‘ope’, they realized that not only did you not curse after an ‘ope’, it can be substituted  _ for  _ a curse word. 

“This is a multifaceted word, isn’t it?” Dean asked as they were in check out.

“Absolutely,” Gabriel said. 

“Ope, I forgot my wallet at home,” a man said in front of them. 

“Don’t worry about,” his female companion replied, waving him off. “I got you.” 

“Oh, you’re an angel,” he said. “What can I do to repay you?” 

“You can buy me some pop, chocolate, and the party sized bag of Ruffles sour cream and onion potato chips in two days,” she smiled, leaning up to kiss him. “And hand me the keys so we don’t get pulled over without your wallet on you and you in the driver’s seat.”

“Fair,” he chuckled. 

The Winchesters checked out with their food and soon, Gabriel had them pulling into another Hy-Vee. They went to the bakery area where he triumphantly found a couple of boxes of freshly made “people chow”. 

“I thought that it was called ‘puppy chow’?” Dean asked, eyeing the confections.

“Well, people are idiots, Dean-O,” Gabriel said, rolling his eyes. “Would you believe people didn’t know not to give  _ chocolate  _ to pooches?” 

“Wait, really?” Sam asked, surprised that more people didn’t know this important factoid.

“Yeah. So they had to rebrand the whole thing as ‘people chow’ because there were too many incidents of people feeding this to their dogs, and then the dogs getting sick and having to be taken to the vet and all of that,” Gabriel explained. “People still call it ‘puppy chow’ though.” 

“What  _ is  _ it-” Castiel was bumped (again) by another person. This time both of them said “Ope” at the same time. Dean silently prayed that Castiel wouldn’t start continuously saying “ope”. It’s a nice enough word, sure, but just like Sam liked to start off long, rambling research rants with ‘so get this’, he would want to strangle Castiel after a time. “What  _ is  _ it, besides chocolate and powdered sugar?” 

“It is Chex cereal, covered in chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar,” Gabriel hummed. “It’s like, the chocolate and sugar equivalent of Cheetos.” He looked at the containers in his hands. “Actually, I think I might like these better than Cheetos.” 

“Is ‘Muddy Buddies’ the same thing?” Dean asked, holding up a bag. 

“Grab a bag of the cookies and cream!” Gabriel called. “It is, it’s the Chex brand version. You should try both.” 

Sam chuckled and nodded. “So let’s check out and find a place to eat so we can try this,” he said. 

“Sounds like a plan, Sammallama,” Gabriel said cheerfully, grabbing a third container. “Put the licorice down, Castiel.” 

Castiel turned mournful eyes onto his older brother. Gabriel would need to have a firm talk with Sam about teaching Castiel the power of puppy eyes. “Fine,” he sighed. “ONE.” 

 

As it turned out, puppy chow was delicious. Even Sam had to admit that, the health nut that he is. And Gabriel was right- the powdered sugar got everywhere, and he knew that they would never hear the end of Dean bitching about the powdered sugar all over the Impala’s leather seats. The food was sweet, but not overtly so, and it had a delightful  _ crunch _ that was thoroughly enjoyed. 

They ate their meals and puppy chow in silence for a while before Castiel spoke up. 

“I think I like ‘ope’,” he said. “It’s simple, it’s direct, and it’s got a lot of very good meanings behind it.” 

Dean resisted the urge to throttle the seraph. “It’s an interesting phrase, that’s for certain,” he said. 

Castiel turned a gaze onto Dean. “This is coming from a man who says ‘awesome’ an awful lot.” 

Gabriel and Sam snickered in the back of the Impala as Dean gave a hurt look to Castiel. 

“I do  _ not _ ,” he said, mildly insulted. 

“Dean, you said ‘awesome’ at least five times eating the puppy chow,” Sam said, brandishing his fork that had a speared hardboiled egg on it at the back of his brother’s head. “And we’ve been parked and eating for twenty minutes. That’s once every four minutes.” 

“Bitch,” Dean grumbled. 

“Jerk,” Sam returned. 

“Ope,” Castiel chimed in, happy that he had his own word to say. 

Gabriel thought that he’d die of dehydration from crying while laughing. 

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr: @lucibae-is-dancing-in-hell
> 
> Twitter: @Alendra_Dragon
> 
> Comments and Kudos are Shiny!!


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